Sneaky Edward Hanson raided his grandad's £500 savings and blew the whole lot on Pokemon cards in just one day.

The seven-year-old, of Birkenshaw, was so obsessed with the cartoon craze, he pinched the cash from a bedroom, spent the whole day buying up stocks and returned with just £6 in change.

And his mum Theresa, of Birkenshaw, today urged parents to be more aware of the dangers of the craze which drove her son to pinch the money.

She said: "All he wanted was the cards - it's like a drug, they can't help themselves. At the time, he didn't have any remorse. He didn't think he was doing anything wrong, he was that blinded.

"There are certain cards which kids are selling on themselves and a lot of them are willing to pay £15 for a card."

Edward, a pupil of Birkenshaw First School, started his spending spree at Scholes Mini Market where Mrs Hanson claimed he bought 40 packs of cards for £180. Ripping them open to see if two of the most sought after cards - Dark Charizard and Venusaur - were inside, she says he went on to buy further packs elsewhere.

But Ibrahim Patel, who works at the family-run Scholes Mini Market, said that he had questioned the seven-year-old when he entered the shop flashing the money.

He said: "I was really careful and before he spent anything I did ask where he had got the money from because he wouldn't normally have that amount of money on him.

"He told me that his mum and dad had given him the money to get him out of the way because he was making too much noise.

"I was trying to do what I could to help but he kept insisting that he wanted Pokemon. I am definitely a responsible shop owner.

"I know the lad and his family really well and we have got a good rapport together.

"I'm absolutely certain that he didn't spend £500 in this shop, it wasn't even half that. It was probably £170 or £180 at most. He kept coming in and spending £20 at a time, he didn't spend it all at once."

Mr Patel said that when he had been approached by Mrs Hanson he had refunded her £100 and offered to try to find buyers for the other £80 worth of cards.

Later, a shop assistant in the nearby Co-op store staff alerted Edward's grandfather after staff became suspicious about the amount of money he had.

But Mrs Hanson today claimed shops who sold him the cards should have been more careful.

"If they had stopped him the first time he went in, he wouldn't have carried on. When he was questioned about the money, he told me he said his mum had won the national lottery," she said.

About ten million packs of Pokemon cards have been sold since the trading game was launched last April.

Based on the Nintendo Game Boy game, the trading cards cost between £2.50 and £8. But the rarest ones can be traded on the black market for up to £300.

Samantha Ward of Wizards of the Coast, the company behind the phenomena, said that such an incident was a "minority".

"We actually encourage children to participate in Pokemon Trade Card Game Leagues across the country where they can swap cards," she said. "It's a supervised area for children where they can trade fairly.

"If a child has a lot of money, I would recommend newsagents ask the child to come back in with their parents or guardian."

But Eric Hudson, President of the Bradford branch of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, said: "If a seven-year-old walked into my shop with a wad of notes I would wonder where he got the money from and probably be phoning the police.

"Newsagents do have a responsibility to society and if they see something which they think is wrong they should be looking at it from a responsible point of view."

Ben Barker of Shipley's Beaniequest UK, a collectable card specialist, said the principle aim was of the card game was to attack the opponents character. But he added that youngsters were trying to buy up the 150 cards that are currently on sale.

"That wasn't what the game was made for but it's a side effect which is very profitable for manufacturers," he said. "I know of one newsagents in Bradford where grammar school children buy boxes at £100 a time.

"It does happen more than you think. We are concerned about where the money comes from, but we can't be retailers as well as parents."

He added that he encouraged parents to accompany their children to the store and that trading halls run at Beaniequest UK were supervised and had strict rules against selling the cards for cash.